Province Lifts Public Health Orders Related to COVID-19

The BC Nurses’ Union acknowledges today’s announcements from the Provincial Health Officer and the Minister of Health, bringing an end to the public health emergency for COVID-19 including all related orders and introducing a new province-wide vaccine registry for health-care workers.

The union will closely monitor the development of the province-wide vaccine registry for health-care workers to ensure our members’ rights are protected and upheld.

This announcement means that effective today, nurses who were terminated because of their health authority’s application of this order will now be eligible to return to the health-care system. As we continue to work towards implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, these nurses are a welcome addition that will help alleviate the critical staff challenges that are currently resulting in delays to patient care.

BCNU looks forward to the opportunity to provide feedback to the provincial government in the coming months to ensure the health-care system is protected and members’ rights are respected.

As highly educated health-care professionals, nurses recognize vaccination as an effective measure against communicable diseases, in accordance with the most recent scientific evidence.